Bill Gates Makes Progress On Reinvented Toilets

They are also simply out of reach for 2.6 billion people in
developing nations, says the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF). That's how folks who use no-tech alternatives like
buckets or holes in the ground. Such lack of sanitation leads to
typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and other diseases.

The teams were given these guidelines: come up with a
toilet alternative that doesn't need plumbed water, a sewer
system, electricity and will cost 5 cents or less per user daily
to build and maintain.

The teams delivered.

The Dutch team's idea uses microwaves to turn human waste
into carbon monoxide and hydrogen that in turn could become fuel
stacks to generate electricity.

The British team is working on a way to turn waste into
bio-charcoal.

The Canadian team dehydrates the stuff by running it between
rollers over smolders.

The U.S. team proposed a solar powered toilet that converts
waste into hydrogen for fuel cells.

The foundation also wanted teams to include an "inspirational
element" to their designs to get people to want to use these
newfangled toilets. Frank Rijsberman, director of the initiative,
told Scientific American that the ultimate design would be so
desirable, it would be like the "iPad of sanitation," he said.

An iPad-like toilet funded by the founder of Microsoft. What more could a full digestive
system want?